A Regional Alternative School

November 16, 1993

Dropouts who want to return to Hartford's high schools, as well as students who are failing, need an alternative school equipped to help them. Creating such a school could be expensive. But the social and economic cost of undereducated youths is high, too. To help pay the expense and meet a need that goes beyond municipal boundaries, educators in Hartford and neighboring towns should consider teaming up to develop a year-round regional alternative school.

The citywide dropout rate is at least 9 percent each year. Among the dropouts are girls with babies, students with jobs and even homeless students without parental support. They register for school, apparently with the intention of staying in, but their burdens overwhelm them.

Regular high schools are not adequately prepared to help dropouts or students who are close to leaving. Programs such as the Bridge, which helped students in middle and high schools, were eliminated for lack of money. By itself, the city has little hope to pay for an alternative school.

A regional alternative high school could tap state aid for intertown cooperation and draw enough students to make it economical. Such a school could offer day care for student mothers, and varied schedules for students who work or have family responsibilities that make regular school hours difficult. Depending on the need, the school might offer meals and a shelter for students who lack family support.

By operating year round, the school would allow students with jobs to take reduced class schedules or let mothers who give birth in January to resume classes in the summer.

The school's worthy goal would be to rescue students who would take control of their lives, prepared for jobs or higher education